It's A Small World
by jumbledup925
Summary: All Lee wanted to do was help someone that he cares about, but his efforts have landed him in trouble with his wife and the CIA. **The story is finally complete. Thanks for your patience.**
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" belongs to Warner Bros. and Shoot the Moon Productions. I'm borrowing their characters for what I hope will be our mutual enjoyment.

Amanda struggled to take in all the sights and sounds that surrounded her, as she was led from the entrance of the Central Intelligence Agency's Langley headquarters to an area where their prisoners were held. She hadn't expected to get an opportunity to satisfy her curiosity about the inner-workings of the insular intelligence gathering organization, but under the current circumstances, she'd prefer to be any place but there.

The taciturn agent whose custody she'd been in, and she did feel more like a prisoner than a colleague since her arrival, stopped abruptly and turned to her, with a dour expression on his face.

"Agent King, I hope that you appreciate that we contacted you as a courtesy to another member of the intelligence community."

"Thank you for your courtesy," she replied in such a deceptively polite voice that the agent before her didn't realize how irritated she was by his condescending attitude towards her. "I'd be even more appreciative if you'd tell me why you've taken my partner into custody?"

"Your alleged partner, we haven't ascertained that Mr. Stetson-"

"Agent Stetson," she interjected, as the burly man continued to look down at her, despite her best effort to stand as tall as possible.

"I'll grant you fifteen minutes with my prisoner, whoever he may be, as long as you live up to the ground rules that we discussed. Do we have a deal?"

"Yes." _What choice do I have?_ She stood rigidly, as Agent Collins entered a four digit code into the electronic keypad that controlled access to the holding area that contained her partner and secret husband. He opened the door, allowing her to enter the miniscule anteroom that was outside the six foot by eight foot cell in which Lee was caged. She was surprised to find him sprawled out on the cell's too short cot, eyes closed, and his arms loosely crossed on his chest.

"I expected to find you pacing back and forth like a caged tiger," she stated, dispensing with her customary use of a salutation.

"If you'd gotten here sooner, you would have seen me pacing, but this cage is way too small, I was feeling claustrophobic." He rose from the cot and approached the bars that separated them.

"Poor baby," she stated in an uncharacteristically snide voice. Standing less than a foot apart, they were both struck by the irony of having their positions reversed, this time she was there to bail him out if he'd cooperate with her.

"Hey, you're not usually so unsympathetic. What's bugging you?"

"What's bugging me, you ask?" She unconsciously began to pace the short length of the bars between them. "I asked you to promise me that you would take the day off, no Agency-related activities or contacts, so that I could spend the day with an old friend without having to worry about you, and you promised that you would."

"I kept my promise," he replied defensively, before continuing in a more contrite tone, "I'm sorry that I interfered with your plans for the day."

"If you weren't working, how did you manage to stumble into the middle of a CIA operation?"

"Did you have to use the word 'stumble'?"

"Sorry, poor choice of words. If you weren't working, what were you doing?"

"I promised that I wouldn't tell you." He quickly averted his eyes, and began to shuffle his weight between his two feet.

"Okay, Buster, if you can't tell me what you were doing, I won't be able to help you. Call me, if and when you get out of here." She turned her back on him and began to walk away.

"Alright, I'll fill you in on the broad strokes, but that's the best that I can do. Someone is counting on me to be discreet-"

"What has Francine gotten you involved in this time?"

"It wasn't Francine."

"This time."

The words were out of her mouth before she realized that she'd spoken them out-loud. She knew that there hadn't been anything more than a deep friendship between her husband and the beautiful blonde agent for many years, but she couldn't quite quash the envy that she'd been feeling since her return from California. Rationally, she knew that he had to be paired with another agent during her recovery time, and she knew that he and Francine worked well together, but she wished that they hadn't been so comfortable with the temporary arrangement. His desire to keep his wife safe, led him to continue to wrangle opportunities to partner with Francine, in order to keep Amanda out of the line of fire even after she was cleared to return to fieldwork.

"Francine has nothing to do with this situation. She isn't the only person that I'd go out on a limb for, you know that…or at least I thought that you did." He raked his hand through his hair and then stared at the floor.

"I do know that, I've grown accustomed to your flouting authority in order to help people that you care about, including me. This is different, this time you aren't going against Billy or Dr. Smyth, you're taking on the CIA. I'm not going to help you to jeopardize your career, and possibly mine, if you won't tell me who you're protecting."

"I can't tell you, I promised her-"

"Her?" _Now I wish it were Francine. If it was Emily, she wouldn't have sworn him to secrecy, so who could she be?_ She trusted him, but all the possibilities that were running through her mind were unsettling. He looked up from the floor, their eyes met, and she silently implored him to confide in her.

"I want to tell you, you've got to believe me, but I promised her that I'd keep this between the two of us. She didn't feel comfortable-"

"And why should I care about her comfort?"

The newlyweds were so intent on each other that they failed to notice the door behind them opening, and a man entering until he spoke.

"Because it's your mother that he's protecting."

Author's note: Thanks for reading! Please stay tuned for the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

Quickly turning her back on Lee, an indignant Amanda tore into the new arrival, "This is ridiculous, my mother couldn't possibly have done anything that could get her into trouble with the CIA."

"Nobody said that Mrs. West was in any trouble, but her actions and associations threatened to compromise one of our operations this morning," the agent stated matter-of-factly.

"Actions and associations, you're making her sound like a common criminal," she bristled, moving close enough to be on the brink of encroaching on the man's personal space.

No longer able to keep Dotty's secret, Lee decided to intervene to prevent his wife from ending up sharing the small cell with him.

"Amanda, please calm down, and let me explain-"

"Now you want to explain," she snapped at him. She studied him, her brown eyes glowering until she noticed that his attention had suddenly shifted from her to the doorway behind them.

"Maybe you should let me help you to explain before this situation becomes any more tense," suggested Captain Curt Weller, as he moved to stand between Amanda and the bars of Lee's cell.

She visibly sagged, as her husband and her mother's sometime suitor exchanged a wary glance. _Oh my gosh, this can't be happening again, my mother is either dating a criminal or a…spy?_

Author's note: I apologize for the long wait and the extremely short update. I'm fighting a stomach virus that's been going around at work. I'm feeling much better, and I hope you'll accept this brief entry to tide you over for another day or two until I can complete a full-fledged chapter. Thanks for your understanding.


	3. Chapter 3

Lightning never strikes in the same place twice. Amanda didn't know why that cliché had sprung to her mind, but she clung to it desperately, as she considered how little she truly knew about Captain Curt. The notion that she and her mother had both become romantically involved with members of the intelligence community was too surreal for her to process rationally. _I need to start thinking less like a daughter, and more like the fully trained agent that I've become._ She visibly squared her shoulders, and realized that she had failed to notice that Agent Collins had slipped back into the small room, replacing the other agent who'd arrived prior to Curt.

"…Captain," concluded Collins.

"Captain," she questioned, eyeing Weller suspiciously. "Who are you really?"

"I'm precisely who think I am, Amanda, or should I address you as Mrs. King? Imagine my surprise, when I was told that Dotty's daughter and her documentary making boyfriend are better known in intelligence circles as Scarecrow and Mrs. King."

The color drained from Amanda's face as she was forced to accept that even if there was an innocent explanation for Curt's association with the CIA, part of her secret life had been exposed by the morning's events.

"You had no right to tell him that," an irate Lee, barked at Collins.

"And you had no right to break into my hangar and rifle through my office," accused Curt.

"Your unauthorized presence there caused our operation to be aborted," complained the CIA agent.

Recovering her equilibrium, Amanda latched onto Collins' use of the word 'our'.

"You just said 'our' so Captain Curt is one of you," she reasoned out loud.

"No, I'm not; I'm a patriotic civilian whose business puts me in a position to occasionally do things to serve our country. I travel frequently, but because I give flying lessons and offer charter flights, I fly under the radar of conventional intelligence circles. I feel very good about my small contribution to national security, and I can live with the minor risk to my safety that my activities may entail."

"Your activities may have placed my mother at risk."

She knew how hypocritical her charge sounded, even before she saw her husband roll his eyes. Didn't he realize that their situation was different; they always went to great lengths to ensure that Dotty and the boys were protected whenever they faced any potential threat.

"I've never involved Dotty in any of my assignments," Curt defended himself indignantly. "I never intended for her to know anything about this aspect of my life. Clearly, I underestimated her intelligence and perceptiveness, much the same way as you have."

Brown eyes blazing, she angrily retorted, "You have no right to judge us-"

Disgusted with all of them, Agent Collins placed himself between the bickering parties.

"I've got the right to pass judgment on all of you, and I have, this whole fiasco was caused by the personal secrets that you're all harboring. I want the three of you to get out of here and deal with your private issues," and aiming a withering look at Lee he continued, "and stay far away from our ops or your superiors will hear from me. Am I understood?"

"Yes," the Agency veteran acquiesced, to his wife's surprise. "I'm sorry about this morning; we'll address our family issues."

"I'll have the three of you escorted to the exit, and Stetson do me a favor, stay away from the airport, and let the Captain deliver your car to you on neutral territory."

"Not a problem, we have a lot to talk about anyway."

SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK

Lee's apartment, less than an hour later.

"Amanda, you're making me nervous, you didn't say a word the entire time that you were driving us back here."

He closed the door, after allowing her to precede him into the apartment. In the past, her constant chatter had irritated him, but now he was in love with her, and he found her silence far more unsettling. She collapsed onto the sofa, with an unreadable expression on her face.

"I'm still processing things; I don't want to say something that we might regret later."

"I thought that we could talk about anything…and everything."

He tentatively sat down a few inches away from her.

"So did I, but that was before you and Mother started keeping secrets from me," she replied, while scooting further away from him.

"You're overreacting."

"Am I? When did you become Mother's chief confidante?"

"I had dinner with her last night and she asked me to help her with a problem, and keep her request between the two of us." He raked a hand through his hair, and then cautiously continued, "I urged her to include you…but she refused."

"Doesn't she trust me," she queried quietly.

"Of course she does, but…ahh…she thinks that you don't trust her."

T.B.C.

Thanks for continuing to follow this story!


	4. Chapter 4

Lee sat rigidly, as he watched the expression on his wife's face morph from surprise to irritation.

"That's ridiculous; Mother has no reason to think that I don't trust her."

"Doesn't she?" _Steady Stetson, she's not going to like what I have to say, but if I don't say it, we're not going to be able to get past this… as a family._ "Your relationship with her isn't as close as it used to be."

"And whose fault is that?" _He walked into my life four years ago and turned it upside down. He has no grasp of what normal family life is like, and yet he's sitting here, daring to critique my relationship with my mother._

"In large part, I'm to blame-"

"So you admit it." The anger had left her voice. She didn't want to let it go, because deep down inside she knew that if she did, she'd have to deal with the emotional minefield that she'd found herself in.

"I should never have been so adamant in insisting that you lie to your mother about everything…and everyone connected to the Agency. I thought that your family would be safer if they didn't know about your connection to us, and at the beginning I didn't think that you'd be sticking around for very long."

"You planned to see to that personally," she countered playfully.

The tightness in his chest diminished, and he looked at her sheepishly.

"Luckily for me, you were far too stubborn to let me run you off. You understood me better than I understood myself back then. I thought that I was so worldly, and I didn't think that a divorced mom from Arlington could teach me anything, I was so wrong. Thank you for not writing me off as a lost cause."

"You're welcome." She gently stroked his cheek, and looked lovingly into his very expressive hazel eyes. "Even when you were at your most infuriating, I was drawn to you. My common sense was screaming at me to stay away from you, we were far too different, but in my heart, I knew that I needed you as much as you needed me. Does that make any sense to you?"

"Yes."

He closed the distance between them, and initiated a tender kiss, which she quickly deepened. When their lips broke apart several minutes later, they leaned their foreheads against each other, as they waited for their breathing to return to normal. Feeling less oxygen-deprived, she ran her fingers through his hair, and began to kiss him again, but he gently stopped her.

"Much as I'm enjoying this, we have to stop; the family problems that we came here to address aren't going to resolve themselves."

"When did you become so practical," she asked, pulling back reluctantly.

"You're rubbing off on me."

"I guess I must be; but you're hardly an expert on family dynamics."

She regretted the comment as soon as she'd made it. He looked away, clearly stung by her words.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so insensitive," she stated remorsefully.

"It's okay, I'm not an expert on family, but I have learned a lot from you and yours. They've accepted me; and they treat me as if I'm part of the family."

"You are."

"But they don't know that _yet_. I was surprised when your mother invited me to dinner last night; I assumed that she was going to grill me about my intentions toward you."

"And you went anyway?"

"Sure, I wanted to make sure that she, and the boys, know that I'm not going anyplace. And I enjoy her company! I was blind-sided when she didn't want to discuss you and me. She confided that she was afraid that she might have placed herself in a bad situation, and she seemed embarrassed about it. I told her that I'd learned how to be a good listener from you, and asked if she wanted to talk about whatever was troubling her. She said that she did, but then she appeared to be having second thoughts about confiding in me, so I asked her if she'd be more comfortable if we waited until you could be a part of the conversation."

"And she said 'no'," Amanda questioned despondently.

"Not initially, she changed the subject by suggesting that we sit down to dinner, so I decided to let her set the course of the conversation. We chatted about several inconsequential topics, and then out of left field she asked me if I thought she was a fool. I was stunned, I've never thought of her that way."

"No," Amanda challenged him, with a raised eyebrow.

He'd never said anything truly derisive about Dotty to her, but she suspected that in the past he'd had some good laughs with Billy and Francine at her mother's expense.

"I won't deny that my opinion of your mother," he raked his hand through his hair roughly and then continued, "has evolved over time, you know how wrong first impressions can be. There's a lot more to your mother than I was able to pick up on from a distance. She's a terrific woman, and I've enjoyed getting to really know her, and giving her the chance to get to know me. I haven't hidden my checkered past from her, and she isn't holding it against me."

"Why would she? Mother tends to withhold her judgment of new people that she meets until she's had time to get to know them. She's been seeing Curt for quite a while now, that's why I'm so surprised that she's suddenly turned on him."

"She hasn't turned on him, but he did some things that aroused her suspicions, and she decided that her wisest course of action was to ask me to use my 'government connections' to check him out. She presented a cogent argument to back up her theory about him, so I agreed to look into the situation."

"I'm glad that you found out the truth about Captain Curt, but I really wish you hadn't gotten caught in the process because now he knows about our real careers."

"Amanda, I don't think that he's the only one who no longer believes that we make documentaries. I didn't get much sleep last night…I kept thinking about all the things that your mother said and didn't say. I'm convinced that she's figured out what we actually do for a living, and she used her suspicions about Curt to draw the truth out of us."

Author's note: Thanks for continuing to follow this story! Please stay tuned for the final chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

Why does it seem as though when you're in a hurry to get home, you hit every possible red light along the way, but when you're in no hurry it's green lights all the way? Amanda sighed deeply, as she pulled the Wagoneer into her driveway, and glanced wistfully at the empty passenger seat beside her. Maybe she shouldn't have insisted upon confessing the truth about their professions to her mother alone? It had seemed like the best course of action at the time, Lee had wanted to be there, even if only to provide her with moral support, but she'd declined his offer.

" _Amanda, you shouldn't face your mother alone. Even though I'm convinced that she's suspected the truth about what we do for quite some time, having her suspicions confirmed is something else entirely. The conversation could get-"_

 _"Heated, angry, emotional," Amanda interjected in a deceptively calm voice. "I expect that my conversation with Mother will be all those things and more, but I got myself into this mess and I have to get myself out of it on my own."_

"You didn't get yourself into this predicament entirely on your own. I chose you out of the crowd at the train station, and your life hasn't been the same since."

 _"I didn't have to agree to help you that day, but I did, any I have no regrets about that decision."_

" _I think your mother will find that decision easier to accept than all the lies that you've told her since then. I'm the one who originally ordered you to keep your connection to the Agency, and to me, a secret from everyone in your life, so this mess is partly my fault too."_

" _Part of me would like to blame this situation on you, but I'm the one who choose to lie to my mother, even though doing so went against everything that I'd always believed was right. It was MY choice, you know me well enough to know that I don't follow your orders when I don't want to. Something inside me was more comfortable lying to her, than telling her the truth about the new life I've been living. I need to address that on my own."_

He'd admired her determination to face Dotty alone, and wished her luck, as she left him after a hastily arranged meeting with Captain Curt. The older man had promised to keep their secret, although he'd informed them that he was planning to tell Dotty about his affiliation with the CIA. If Lee was correct, and Dotty had spoken to him in hopes of luring the truth out of them, than she was likely better prepared for this confrontation than an emotionally unsettled Amanda was.

"Mother, I'm home," called Amanda, as she walked through the back door. Her heart was racing, and she felt slightly queasy.

Entering the kitchen, Dotty asked, "What are you doing home? I thought you were planning to spend the day with your friend, Laura."

"I had planned to, but Lee ran into a little trouble this morning, and I had to bail him out."

 _Oh, my._ "Dear, you don't mean that literally do you?"

The two women who used to be able to read each others' thoughts so easily stood across the room from each other, both wishing that they could easily say what they were actually thinking, but they were both reluctant to be the one to take the first step in that direction.

"What makes you think that Lee could have gotten into that kind of trouble?"

Overcome with misgivings, Dotty wrung her hands anxiously and replied, "I asked him to do me a favor. Under the circumstances, I didn't think it would-"

"Mother, stop, I can't keep doing this. I'm so tired of playing word games with you."

"Is that your way of telling me that you aren't going to continue lying to me?"

Amanda knew it was coming, but hearing the accusation in her mother's voice, and devoid of any histrionics, made her feel as though she'd been slapped.

"Yes."

The normally loquacious brunette found that the simple one word answer was all that she could muster.

"I'm glad to hear it, although I'm somewhat disappointed that Lee betrayed my confidence in less than one day."

It was one thing to allow her mother to attack her, she'd brought it on herself, but she wouldn't allow her husband to be judged unfairly.

"Lee kept your secret from me, and the CIA agents who took him into their custody, and locked him in a cell when he refused to reveal why he was investigating Captain Curt."

Dotty slumped into a chair at the kitchen table. She'd only wanted to shake loose some honest answers from her loved ones, not have a young man that she'd come to care so deeply about wind up in trouble. Amanda seated herself across the table from her, and studied her troubled countenance. They looked at each other for a long moment, and wordlessly agreed to drop all their previous pretenses.

"I tried to tell myself that I was misreading all the potential evidence, but I was right, Curt is with the CIA."

"No, Mother, he's not, he's a civilian who occasionally does little things to help them out. You'd be surprised by how many unsuspecting civilians get drawn into the intelligence community just because they're in the right place at the right time."

Author's note: I had planned to conclude this story with a very long final chapter, but then work obligations took a huge chunk of my time this week. The short chapter that you have just read serves to get the relationship between Amanda and Dotty headed in the right direction. The story could end here, if you my valued readers want it to, or I could write one more chapter in which the ladies truly hash things out as soon as I have time.

Whatever you decide, I'm grateful for the time you've spent following this story and I hope you enjoyed it!


	6. Chapter 6

"You can't expect me to believe that your embarking on a career as a spy began with a chance encounter," Dotty replied irritably.

"I know it seems difficult to believe-"

"No more difficult than any of the other tall-tales that you've been telling me since you started working for IFF." She rose from her seat at the table, and looked at her daughter sadly before continuing, "I thought that you had finally decided to be honest with me, but clearly I was wrong, so if you'll excuse me…"

She turned to walk away, but Amanda leapt to her feet and grabbed her arm to prevent her from leaving.

"Mother, please don't go, I'm trying to tell you the truth… believe me, I know that what I'm about to tell you will be hard to believe, and if I hadn't lived through it myself I doubt that I'd believe it."

"If I agree to hear you out, will you tell me the whole truth?" _She seems contrite, but I know that we wouldn't be having this conversation if she didn't think that I was on the brink of discovering her secret on my own._

"There are some things that I simply can't discuss with you or anyone else, but I promise that I won't lie to you anymore. Are you willing to give me a chance to tell you what I can?"

She stood stiffly, subconsciously holding her breath as her mother silently debated whether or not to give her the chance to explain how she'd inadvertently gotten involved in the intelligence community. Dotty wordlessly signaled her acquiescence by sitting back down at the table, and looking at her daughter expectantly. The younger woman had often imagined how she would explain her life as an agent to her family, but none of the potential conversational gambits that she'd considered seemed appropriate to the current circumstances.

"I don't know whether or not it'll make you feel better, but I can assure you that I didn't set out to join the intelligence community."

"You've had fantasies about spies for as long as I can remember," Dotty countered wryly. "Why shouldn't I assume that you grew bored with your life as a suburban mom, and decided to pursue your dreams?"

"I wasn't bored. _Liar._ Well, maybe, I was a little bored, but I was too busy to consider running off to become a spy. It would never have happened if I hadn't driven Dean-"

"Dean?! You've been hiding a secret career for that long?"

"Yes. No. Not exactly…it's just so complicated, it didn't start out as a career move."

"How exactly did it begin?" Studying her daughter's flustered countenance, Dotty became convinced that she was about to hear the truth, rather than another prevarication.

"After Dean got on the train, I was walking back towards the parking lot when I was grabbed by a man in a waiter's uniform."

"Oh my, you must have been so frightened!"

"Maybe, I should have been? _But I wasn't._ It happened so quickly, he grabbed my arm and asked me to walk with him."

"And you did?"

"Yes, he seemed to be in trouble, and he asked me to help him. I hesitated for a minute, but when I looked into his eyes I just knew that I could trust him, and so I tried to do what he asked me to."

"What did Lee ask you to do," the older woman asked knowingly.

"I didn't say that it was Lee."

"You didn't have to, Dear, there's something very captivating about his large hazel eyes…I've watched you get lost in them countless times. I've suspected that you've known Lee for longer than you've let on, but I never would have guessed that you've been together for over three years."

"We haven't been, we're from totally different worlds, and we drove each other crazy at the beginning. After I helped him that first time, he made it clear that he never wanted to see me again."

"He obviously changed his mind; he did hire you after all."

"No, he didn't hire me; his boss hired me, much to Lee's consternation."

Amanda was momentarily lost in memories of what working with Lee had been like during that period. Even then, she'd known that there was far more to him than the Scarecrow persona that he'd hidden behind, but she hadn't allowed herself to believe that they'd ever become husband and wife. She was brought back to the present by her mother.

"While you do have many wonderful qualities, I fail to see what would possess a CIA executive to hire a suburban mom?"

"I don't know what qualities the CIA looks for in their new recruits because Lee and I don't work for them, if we did this morning's debacle could have been avoided."

"I knew it was too good to be true, you do think that I'm a gullible old fool."

She sounded more hurt than angry. Amanda had clung to the hope that her years of dishonesty hadn't damaged her relationship with her mother as much as Lee had suggested, but now she knew beyond a doubt that it had. How could she have failed to notice how deeply she'd hurt her?

"I don't think you're a fool, and you certainly aren't old, Mother. I never set out to be so dishonest with you."

She picked up a small salt shaker that was sitting in the middle of the table, and worried it between her fingers.

"Lee and I work for the Agency, it's similar to the CIA, but it is far more covert. IFF only exists as a front to disguise the actual activities of Agency employees; it keeps us safer than we would be if everyone knew that we are members of the intelligence community. When I was hired, originally as a part-time civilian helper, I was sworn to secrecy."

"Part-time civilian helper? What did that entail?"

"Mostly secretarial work at first…and trying to keep Lee on an even keel, Mr. Melrose-"

"William Melrose? You work with that unpleasant man?"

"Lee and I report directly to Mr. Melrose, and he isn't unpleasant at all, you've only dealt with him under less than ideal circumstances."

"Like when he came barreling into our home last fall? He was hunting you and Lee down as though you were common criminals.

"We'd been accused of committing treason, he was following orders-"

"Does that make it okay," the indignant mother huffed.

"You don't understand-"

"How could I possibly understand when you didn't see fit to share the truth with me, even under those dire circumstances?"

"I truly thought that you and the boys were safer not knowing the truth. Lee, and the Agency, always provided the family with protection if we felt that you were at even the slightest risk. When I started working for the Agency, the boys were far too young to understand the nature of a job in the intelligence field, and you-"

"Didn't have the intellect and good judgment to be trusted with the truth, although you didn't have any qualms about leaving me responsible for the boys' care for hours or even days on end…without being aware of the potential danger that we all faced. I am not a stupid woman."

Her voice grew louder as she stood up again and turned her back on Amanda.

"I may not possess your lofty personal mores, I confess to enjoying the company of a charming man without it leading to a long-term commitment. I know that you don't approve-"

"It isn't-"

"Don't interrupt me," the blonde interrupted icily, whirling around to face her daughter. "I've kept my own counsel long enough, and now you're going to hear me out. What your father and I had was very special, and I don't expect to find that with any other men, but I'm much too young to spend the rest of my life doing without…life's pleasures. I've made some poor choices along the way; Andrei Zernov and Harry Beaumont come to mind. I'm sorry that I drew you into my messes, and I do appreciate that you helped me to help them, but you didn't do it without making me feel like an old fool."

"I didn't mean to, I guess I was thinking and acting more like an agent than a daughter, and for that I'm sorry. Is that why you took your suspicions about Captain Curt to Lee instead of me?"

"Yes, I was pretty sure that he had the means to help me, and I thought that he would do what he could without making me feel…judged."

"The way that I do. Earlier, Lee told me that I tend to be more judgmental of the people closest to me than I am of strangers _or suspects_. I was annoyed at him, until I started to think that he might be right. I'm not perfect, and maybe in the past I tried too hard to live up to an artificial set of standards. When I finally admitted to myself that my marriage was over, I was determined to be content with being the best mother and daughter that I could be, but as much as I tried to deny it to myself, I wasn't satisfied with my life at all. Meeting Lee and joining the Agency changed my life…I felt alive again, but it was a very risky path to be on…and I didn't think you'd approve of my choices. Having promised to keep my ties to the Agency a secret gave me license to avoid discussing any of my life choices with you. When Joe found out-"

"Joe knows? You didn't confide in me, but you told your ex?"

"No, I didn't tell him, he figured it out when he came back from Estoccia. Lee and I helped to clear his name when he was accused of murdering the Prime Minister. The three of us were forced to spend a lot of time together, and Joe realized that Lee and I weren't the strangers that we were pretending to be."

"Does he approve of your new life?"

"It isn't his place to approve or disapprove; he forfeited his right to an opinion when he left his family behind to pursue his own dreams. At the time, I got the impression that he thought that I was going through a phase that I'd get past in time."

"He doesn't have a right to voice an opinion about your romantic life, but he wouldn't be out of line in objecting to the possible dangers that your career has subjected the boys to."

"You're right he isn't pleased about that, but since the boys were held at gunpoint by the men who had actually attempted to kill the Prime Minister he can't say much, especially since Lee risked his life to rescue the boys."

"So the boys know, too," a dismayed Dotty questioned.

"No, they have no idea, the encounter in the school gym ended quickly, and they didn't get a good look at Lee. They only know him as my boyfriend and IFF coworker. We don't feel that they're ready to handle the truth about our careers yet. It's a lot to process, and we've decided that we'd rather have them adjust to having a new step-father in the near future and deal with the career revelations in a few months from now. What do you think? Are you in the mood to help plan a small wedding?"

"I'd be thrilled to help you plan a wedding, but you were already counting on that. We still have a lot of talking to do before things between us will be back on track,"

They slowly walked towards each other and briefly embraced.

"I know you may not believe me, but I really have missed being able to confide in you. I've had so many adventures, met people, and been to amazing places. I can't tell you about all of it; however, one of the things that I've learned from Lee is that I can share edited versions of what I've experienced."

"I'd like that! Why don't you phone my future son-in-law and invite him to join us for lunch? I'd like to thank him properly for all that he's done for our family."

Author's note: I'd like to express my thanks to all the readers who've stuck with this story as work obligations, and more recently, writer's block prevented me from completing this tale in a timely fashion. I appreciate your patience and hope that you enjoyed the story!


End file.
